


make believe

by naktoms



Category: VIXX
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, this is my crowning achievement and yet ive never posted it to ao3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-17
Updated: 2015-10-17
Packaged: 2018-04-26 19:14:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5016997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naktoms/pseuds/naktoms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A silly thing turns into so much more.<br/>(Jaehwan put a lot of effort into that bouquet of wilted weeds.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	make believe

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this SO LONG AGO but this is one of the only fics of mine that still holds up over time  
> i call a lot of my fics my magnum opus but like... i think this might truly be it. everything about it is so good. and it has the most notes on tumblr out of any of my fics. so great
> 
> i hope you enjoy!! kudos + comments are appreciated!!

Jaehwan fishes his phone out of his pocket and types in his passcode when it dings, letting him know he has a message.

 **hyukkie:**  
jaehwan can i ask a favor? it’s kind of weird

He smiles to himself when he reads who the sender is, curling up on the couch to type a reply.

 **super cool hwannie:**  
of course!

 **hyukkie:**  
my friends won’t stop making fun of me, can you pretend to be my boyfriend

Jaehwan gapes at his phone, an expression that surely would have gotten him some sort of ridicule had Sanghyuk been right in front of him. Thankfully, his dignity was intact, so thus he simply replied: “of course!”

A few days later, Sanghyuk arranges some sort of “meet the boyfriend” thing with his friends, presenting Jaehwan proudly to them and grinning when they make faces and noises of awe, shoving at Sanghyuk and demanding to know why they didn’t tell him about Jaehwan sooner.

Jaehwan plays along beautifully, and had he been an actor he would have demanded at least 3 nominations. The thing is, as Sanghyuk’s friends crowd around him and ask questions about their relationship (“Have you kissed?”, “When did you meet?”, “Where do you like to go on dates?”), and as Jaehwan has to make up answers (“Of course!”, “On the street, he was so beautiful that I couldn’t help but speak to him!”, “Wherever Sanghyuk wants to go.”), he finds himself wishing all of that had actually happened.

A few hours pass before Sanghyuk’s friends go home and leave them alone in the small cafe, Sanghyuk looking drained and flustered. He leans over and lays his head on the table and Jaehwan reaches over and pats him gently. “There there, it’s alright. It wasn’t that bad, was it?”

Sanghyuk groans in response, sitting up again and looking grumpy. “It made me feel bad, I didn’t want you to have to lie for me.”

“Well, you shouldn’t have told them you had a boyfriend when you didn’t. But, then,” Jaehwan pauses to sip on his now-cold coffee, “you would have missed out on all of this beautiful charm and charisma.”

Sanghyuk laughs, perking up a bit. “All they could ask me when I told them I had a boyfriend was ‘is he hot?’, so I was like, oh, god, who do I know that’s hot that doesn’t go to my school?” He gives a pointed look to Jaehwan and Jaehwan puts a hand to his chest.

“You mean you think I’m hot? This is groundbreaking news, we’re making strides. We need to keep up the boyfriend facade, by the way, you never know when we could meet one of your friends somewhere.” Jaehwan smiles, holding out his hand, and Sanghyuk shyly takes it. “There. Now compliment me.”

“Oh my god, you’re the worst.” Sanghyuk groans, dramatically slumping back over to lay his head on the table once more. But he doesn’t let go of Jaehwan’s hand.

 

“We have to spend more time together, also.”

“Oh my god,” Sanghyuk says from the other end of the line.

“It has to be authentic! Besides, what do you even know about me? What if someone asks you what my favorite color is, will you know?”

There’s a long pause before Sanghyuk changes the topic to Jaehwan’s own friends. University friends that could care less about Jaehwan’s love life, but that hasn’t stopped Jaehwan from telling them he has a fake boyfriend. Hakyeon freaked out nonetheless, but still.

“Wow, you told them?” Sanghyuk asks incredulously, and Jaehwan makes an affirmative noise. “That’s- wow, alright. So we’re officially fake dating, that’s weird.”

“I know! I love it, let’s keep doing it.”

There’s some sort of strangled, flustered noise in response, and Jaehwan laughs.

Sanghyuk announces that he’s going to bed shortly after, and Jaehwan coos an, “I love yoooou,” into the receiver. There’s a long pause before Sanghyuk sighs and responds with a flat I-love-you of his own, unenthused and out of obligation. It still makes Jaehwan smile.

 

“This is a fake date for fake people, like us.” Jaehwan says grandly, taking Sanghyuk’s hand and leading him into the ice cream parlor. “We’re going to have a good time as friends, and then if we see someone you know we have to instantly begin making out. It’s the rules.”

Sanghyuk chokes, presumably on air, and Jaehwan grins at him and swings their hands slightly as they walk up to the counter. He doesn’t release Sanghyuk’s hand as they sit down, squeezing it tighter before he has to relinquish it to let Sanghyuk peruse the small menu they’re handed. Sanghyuk eventually orders plain chocolate, and Jaehwan orders some sort of elaborate deal that he can barely remember himself. He just hopes it tastes good.

“Hey, by the way,” Sanghyuk says, not waiting for Jaehwan to grab his hand again and doing it himself, “since you’re my fake boyfriend, does that mean you can tutor me for free?”

“Of course, I love being used for my talents.” Jaehwan responds, nodding eagerly and smiling when Sanghyuk laughs.

“I’ll definitely use you for your talents, I have a math exam soon and I’m definitely going to fail the entire course if I don’t do some serious studying. I have to make at least an 80 to pass, ‘cause I’ve been failing the entire year, please help me.” He raises his head as a waitress walks towards them with their bowls of ice cream.

“Of course I’ll help you, do you want me to come over this weekend?”

Sanghyuk nods, holding out his hands to take the bowls presented to them and pushing Jaehwan’s monstrosity towards him. “That looks disgusting, I hope you enjoy it.”

“Thanks. Just remember, if someone appears, this? This is going to be all in your mouth.”

“Oh my god, stop.”

 

Jaehwan stares at the numbers on the page, blinking as he tries to process the question, then slowly puts the notebook down and slides it across the table. “What the fuck.”

“I know!” Sanghyuk yells, slamming his hand down on the notebook. “It’s bullshit, how do I even do this!”

“I think I’m going to need several years of therapy after looking at that for more than 5 seconds, I’m really sad right now.” Jaehwan says dramatically, getting up out of the floor and walking to Sanghyuk’s kitchen.

“Bring me a soda!” Sanghyuk calls after him, and Jaehwan complies, returning with two brightly colored cups filled with an off-brand cola. He puts them on the table and sits down again, sipping his soda and watching as Sanghyuk tries, desperately, to figure out the equation he’s been given.

“Dear,” Jaehwan begins gently, setting his cup back down, “I think I see brain cells dying, please stop looking at that.”

Sanghyuk groans, pushing the math work to the other end of the table and dragging his hands down his face. “I’m so going to fail.”

“This is notably un-boyfriend, we should do something better. Do you have any good movies?”

Sanghyuk visibly brightens, getting up quickly and shuffling to the entertainment center. “Oh my god- do you like horror movies?”

“I’m open to anything you like, dear.” Jaehwan says, leaning back so his head is resting on the couch cushion.

Sanghyuk nods enthusiastically, selecting an American horror movie from the early 2000s and putting it in the DVD player, coming to sit on the couch. Jaehwan remains in the floor, leaning over so he can rest his head against Sanghyuk’s knee, and Sanghyuk pats the top of his head.

Jaehwan ends up falling asleep, even while there’s demonic screaming and explosive blood spatter occurring on-screen. He wakes up to Sanghyuk hunched over, stroking his hair and whispering, “I really need to go pee.”

“Go pee, then.” Jaehwan groans, shifting so he’s not hindering Sanghyuk from getting up any longer. Sanghyuk hurries off to the bathroom and Jaehwan rubs his eyes, looking to see the credits rolling on-screen. He’s still not sure what the movie was about, all he knows is that Sanghyuk played with his hair almost the entire time and apparently didn’t want to disturb him by getting up, even with his fragile bladder in danger.

Sanghyuk reappears, holding out a hand to presumably help Jaehwan up. Jaehwan takes it, but instead of using him as a support, he drags Sanghyuk into his lap. Sanghyuk makes an indignant noise, blushing, but Jaehwan holds him fast, snuggling his face into his neck.

Sanghyuk doesn’t put up any real fight, even though he seems hopelessly embarrassed, and eventually he sighs and lays his head on Jaehwan’s shoulder. Jaehwan pauses a moment, looking at him out of the corner of his eye, and then he asks, “Sanghyuk, why did you say you had a boyfriend?”

“What? To seem cool, my friends are all dating someone, so they were making fun of me.” Sanghyuk shifts, pressing his face into Jaehwan’s neck. “I told you that.”

“No, I mean- why didn’t you say you had a girlfriend, instead?”

“Uh, because I don’t know any girls that aren’t dating my friends?” Sanghyuk laughs, pulling his knees up so he’s curled into a ball. “And because- I dunno, it’s like, my friends are always being dragged around by their girlfriends. But Sungjae- he’s dating this guy named Ilhoon, right, and Ilhoon never really does that. So I guess I just thought, man. Maybe if I ended up having a boyfriend, it wouldn’t be so bad.”

Jaehwan nods knowingly, watching as Sanghyuk’s cat comes walking through. He wants to say something, but he’s not sure what-

“Can I kiss you?”

Jaehwan blinks, turning his head to look at Sanghyuk, who raises his head to look at Jaehwan in turn. “What?” Sanghyuk repeats what he said, slower for emphasis, and Jaehwan smiles. “Well, we are fake dating, we might as well. Practice for if your friends see us.”

Sanghyuk laughs, leaning in to first bump his forehead against Jaehwan’s. “I’ve only kissed a girl when I was 7.” He says quietly, cheeks pink.

Jaehwan raises his hands to cup Sanghyuk’s face, smiling wider. “I’ve been told a kiss from me is like a kiss from the angels.”

“That’s a lie,” Sanghyuk says quickly, and then Jaehwan closes the distance between them, a soft kiss that doesn’t last very long. A few moments pass before Sanghyuk asks softly, “Can we do that more?”

“Of course.”

 

“Well, you’re working off of the pretense that you already like each other, right?”

Jaehwan nods, and Hakyeon makes a thoughtful noise, taking a drink of his iced coffee. “I don’t think it’d be that hard to lead into, I mean- just do it like you do everything else.”

“With utmost grace and beauty?” Jaehwan offers, posing and batting his eyelashes.

“With outlandishness and stupidity.” Hakyeon corrects, grinning. “He’ll be smitten for sure.”

Jaehwan sticks out his tongue, mock offense in his tone when he speaks. “I can’t believe you’re offending me like this, I paid for those 3 cookies you ate.”

“It wasn’t 3-”

“You’re right, it was 4!” Jaehwan laughs when Hakyeon shoves his shoulder. “Weren’t you really worried about your figure in high school, what happened?”

“Laziness happened, university in general happened- my first hangover happened, I think that changed my life.”

Jaehwan nods sagely, taking another drink of his own coffee. “I understand. Well, thank you I suppose, but you also want me to buy you dinner, right?”

“Obviously, I can’t leave the house without getting someone to buy something for me.”

“Charming as ever.”

 

Despite Jaehwan’s mock anger, outlandish was definitely an adjective that stuck easily. So he shows up at Sanghyuk’s house the following weekend with a very small, pathetic bouquet of flowers that he picked himself and a slice of chocolate cake from one of his friends’ birthday parties.

“Oh, I- what is this for?” Sanghyuk says after he’s opened the door and properly taken in the sight.

“It is for an anguished confession of my undying love, what else?” Jaehwan says loudly, bowing and holding out his gifts. “Please, Sanghyuk, accept my heart’s bounty.”

“I- oh my god. Is this for real?” Sanghyuk asks, gently taking the flowers and the plate from Jaehwan and stepping aside so Jaehwan can come inside.

“Of course! How can I simply forget about your soft touch and strange habits, like leaving half-empty glasses of soda laying around and eating paper when you think nobody’s looking?”

Sanghyuk is quiet for a moment before he whispers, “You’ve seen me do that?”

Jaehwan laughs, kicking off his shoes before leaning toward Sanghyuk, whispering, “You ate half of your math homework sheet, I know.”

“Fuck.”

Jaehwan laughs again, stepping inside and going to sit on the couch. “Where’s your parents?”

“At work, they only get Sundays off.” Sanghyuk answers, coming to sit beside Jaehwan, looking more than a little awkward. “I- are you serious about this?”

Jaehwan scoffs, tossing his hair. “Who do you take me for, why would I put so much effort into something like this if I wasn’t serious?”

“Um, because you’re you?”

“… Well. True. Alright, ahem.” Jaehwan stands up again, posing dramatically in the middle of the living room and staving off a laughing fit when he hears Sanghyuk’s quiet ‘oh no’. “Han Sanghyuk! My beloved child, the prince of my heart, my fake boyfriend of 2 months. From this day forward!” Jaehwan points at Sanghyuk, trying to keep his face as serious as possible. “We are romantically involved! And you can’t stop me!”

“Oh my god.” Sanghyuk says flatly, rubbing a hand over his face. “Alright, well, how can I stop you after you’ve done all this? Please sit down, you’re embarrassing me.”

“I aim to please.” Jaehwan responds, sitting back down and snuggling up to Sanghyuk. “Now eat your cake, I’ve had that for 3 days. But it’s relatively fresh, don’t worry.”

Sanghyuk eyes the cake before slowly placing it on the table, pushing the plate away from him and making Jaehwan laugh.

“A good call, I’m proud of you.” Jaehwan remarks, turning his head to kiss Sanghyuk’s cheek. “I loooove you.”

“I- I love you too,” Sanghyuk says softly, cheeks flushing. “But, um, the next time you bring flowers? I need better.”

“You’re so fussy! Be happy with what I give you, dear, most people don’t get that much.”

“Wilted weeds do not make me feel special.”

“You know Sanghyuk, I already don’t know if this relationship is going to work out.”

 

 **hyukkie:**  
jaehwan i failed my math course please kill me

 **super cool hwannie:**  
a man cannot kill that which he loves more than life itself

 **hyukkie:**  
oh my god


End file.
